I bought two things in the Dealer's Hall that left me a bit irked afterwards.

First off, a doujin dealer with a sizeable amount of doujin who was on the right side of the hall, about half way down. I pulled out two doujin, which were both wrapped in plastic and marked with clearly printed price stickers. The doujin I chose were priced at $19.95 and $24.95. After tax, the amount was around $48. I paid with a card, and the receipt was emailed to me. Yesterday when I got home and checked my receipt with the price breakdown, I noticed that the dealer had charged me $45 + tax. I know this is my fault for not being more careful, and is rather nitpicky, but I absolutely do not appreciate that the dealer rounded up the price from $44.90 to a flat $45. To me, this is a sneaky tactic to skim some extra off the top, and after numerous transactions, could result in a small additional profit. The receipt listed the shop as "Elder Chan." I don't know what I'm looking for by posting this, but I'd like it to at least be known that this happened in the dealer's hall, and while the amount is so incredibly insignificant, I do find it very dishonest and sneaky.

There was also a dealer who was selling lots of real arpakasso Amuse merchandise. I jumped on a legit small macaron alpaca, and the seller emphasized that their merchandise was real, and not fake. However, my friend bought me a large alpaca from them, and it did not have the Amuse tag that mine had on it. Rather, it has a tag that even I don't recognize. Does anyone know D.E? It's very cute and the rare pistachio color I was looking for, but I'm not happy that she specifically told us both were real, when only one maybe is.

This isn't so much dishonest as it is taking advantage of people who don't know any better, but there was a booth selling "mounted" magazine pages for like $5-10 a pop. CRAZY! I literally mean magazines PAGES from Animage, NewType, Animedia, etc. Magazine bonuses like posters and pencil boards or clear files I can imagine, but these people cut out pages of magazines and sold them one-by-one for like 5 bucks each. Even two-page spreads were cut and sold separately.

I seriously hope no one bought any of these, and I think the FanimeCon dealers room would be better off without sellers who try to rip off anime fans like this. Unfortunately I don't remember which booth it was but they were near the end of one of the lanes iirc. They also sold the covers of magazines mounted for about $10 each which were displayed against the back wall.

This isn't so much dishonest as it is taking advantage of people who don't know any better, but there was a booth selling "mounted" magazine pages for like $5-10 a pop. CRAZY! I literally mean magazines PAGES from Animage, NewType, Animedia, etc. Magazine bonuses like posters and pencil boards or clear files I can imagine, but these people cut out pages of magazines and sold them one-by-one for like 5 bucks each. Even two-page spreads were cut and sold separately.

I seriously hope no one bought any of these, and I think the FanimeCon dealers room would be better off without sellers who try to rip off anime fans like this. Unfortunately I don't remember which booth it was but they were near the end of one of the lanes iirc. They also sold the covers of magazines mounted for about $10 each which were displayed against the back wall.

Reality check.... this is how the world of collecting works. Vintage posters/magazines are hard to come by. Otherwise, why would people bother to collect (free) concert posters from venues such as the Fillmore? Why would people bother to collect past issues of Rolling Stone? There's artwork in those anime magazines that fans would LOVE to collect, but wouldn't want to purchase a whole magazine just to have ONE page from a specific series. And don't forget, finding magazines & cutting out each page to have them mounted is LABOR intensive....that's also included in the price. Charging $5-$15 IS a reasonable price. That's like saying a frame shop shouldn't charge for labor if you just buy the picture frame alone and expect them to professionally mount your image.

Remember, the dealer isn't twisting/forcing your arm to purchase his products. If you don't like their prices, keep on walking.

That's exactly what I did. And the "mounts" were just cardboard matting with the page taped to it. Maybe a $2 price tag may have been more reasonable but I definitely don't think $5 or higher is. That's almost the retail price of the magazine itself. There are over a hundred pages in a magazine. If they sold even half of the pages that'd be like a $250 profit on a $6-7 magazine, not including so-called "labor."

Like I said, it's not really that the dealer was being dishonest, but they were definitely hoping to bank on fans who may not know any better. I posted this so that people may be aware of some sellers who try to rip them off with outrageous prices.

Mounting is still mounting. The bag and board alone is a buck or two. The labor/time to cut the pages and mount them adds another couple bucks.

If people don't understand what they are looking at when they buy something that is usually their own fault. As the old saying goes "buyer beware." If this is the only way to get that artwork and someone wants to buy it what's wrong $5-15 a crack.

Your basically arguing against the whole vintage/collectables market. Where else is the fan going to find the artwork/magazine. Simply put Supply & Demand.

If people don't understand what they are looking at when they buy something that is usually their own fault. As the old saying goes "buyer beware."

By this logic you'd be blaming the customer who buys a bootleg rather than the seller who sells it though.

I highly doubt some cardboard, plastic, and tape is going to cost $2. In any case, I'm not here to argue with you about this. All I'm saying is that there was a booth that was quite clearly trying to rip off buyers. Since their box of cutouts still seemed pretty full on the third day of the con, it's nice to know that not many people were biting. I think most people will agree that $10 for a plainly mounted magazine cover from two months ago is a rip-off and I don't get why you're so desperate to defend these outrageous prices as if you were the seller.

Anyway, I've said my piece so I'm done here. If you think their prices are justified then fine. There's no need to go back and forth on it any further.

Bootleg is a completly different category as that is something that per the contract the Dealers' all sign shouldn't be in the hall. Buyer beware applies for prices of collectables, which in this case vintage/out of print magazines and there derivatives are.You still are forgetting the labor in aquiring, sorting, and bagging (since mounting seems to offend you) Which is $$$.I am not the seller, but I go to enough shows to know what the value on vintage stuff is. If there's a market why call shame on it.

BTW love the whole last post basically reads blah blah blah got to get the last word blah blah blah...

I remember that booth. I actually wanted to stop by and browse since I like collecting artwork and any other merchandise from my favorite series but as soon as I saw that price of $10, I couldn't move on fast enough.

Would not call them dishonest since every other dealer sold items at inflated prices.ex. there was a Megahouse Binbougami figure I really wanted. Cost $91 and almost pulled the trigger and bought it but checked online and could get it for $50.I bought a music box from that same booth for its suggested retail of $30 so I have no idea how dealers decide what price something should be.

Pertaining to the original topic of this thread: no dealer has ever lied or been dishonest to me. Lucky me.

Would not call them dishonest since every other dealer sold items at inflated prices.ex. there was a Megahouse Binbougami figure I really wanted. Cost $91 and almost pulled the trigger and bought it but checked online and could get it for $50.I bought a music box from that same booth for its suggested retail of $30 so I have no idea how dealers decide what price something should be.

I think I can answer that question since I've worked many WonderCons & SDCC shows as a dealer at my friend's booth for the last 14 years...

The main reason for inflated prices are in fact Supply vs Demand. This applies to 99% of dealers as they are here to make money. This is a fulltime job for them - this is what pays their bills & feeds their families. For the Japanese toy market, it is commonly known to make ONE production run of a product. This means, no matter how popular said toy is, they will not continue to manufacture in mass quantities. (ie: Hasbro's Star Wars 3" action figures are mass produced year after year....) On rare occasions, the Japanese toy market will reproduce models such as Yamato's Macross line (prior to Yamato going bankrupt). However it took years for Yamato to re-release the same models. I remember I bought my 1/60 scale YF-19 for $120 waaaay back then. Now, it's worth approx $250+ unopened, MINT condition box. It was eventually re-released several years later, but the packaging was different and model was re-engineered to improve the transformation from jet/gerwalk/valkrie mode. Just because there was a re-release, it didn't dampen the $250+ cost of the original.

Japanese toys that were released 5 years ago sold for fair market value such as One Piece P.O.P. series 1/2/3/etc... averaged $80-$120 depending on how much the vendor paid for his wholesale prices & import shipping costs. Now, those same figures are climbing to $200+ depending on popularity of character & limited supply.

A UFO catcher plushie base yen price to a vendor could be 650Y, however this does not include the hefty overseas shipping costs incurred for large wholesale orders (btw, cargo freight on a boat is cheaper than air)...For a vendor to make *SOME* profit, they'd have to charge about $15-$20 per plushie after everything is said & done. Keep in mind, the product needs to sell otherwise, the vendor loses money. Breaking even is not an option, otherwise vendor just spent a shit ton of money all for nothing and wasted his time & effort.

Also keep in mind, if the costs seen online is too good to be true.... it usually is. The $50 online tag could also mean it's a bootleg, damaged box, and/or they might charge a lot more for S/H costs too.

eBay = best online appraisal tool

On the subject of magazines:They cost anywhere from 700 to 2000 yen. This doesn't include shipping costs. Depending on total spent, the vendor has every right to price his magazine page cut outs anywhere from $5-$10. He's not selling EVERY page since there ARE written articles....I'm pretty sure he's not cutting out the 'wordy' pages just to mount & sell....

Side note: I've seen what wholesale prices are for Japanese magazines to local US book shops... Trust me, wholesale discount is pretty shitty!!